Grain-riddle.



PATENTED JUNE 27, 1905. I

W. H. EMERSON.

GRAIN RIDDLE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.7,1905.

WITNESSES STATES Patented June 27, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

IVILLIAM H. EMERSON, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO MANSON CAMPBELL COMPANY, LIMITED, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

GRAIN-RIDDLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 793,571, dated June 27, 1905.

Application filed April 7, 1905. Serial No. 254,332.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be itknown thatI, VVILLIAM H. EMERSON, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Grain-Riddles; and I declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to grain-riddles.

It has for its object an improved riddle employed to separate different characters of grain or seeds.

It is especially intended to separate oats gem round-berried grain, like wheat, barley,

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the riddle. Fig. 2 is a plan of a small portion of the riddle. Fig. 3 is a perspective of a part of one of the cross-ribs and connected parts. Fig. 4 is a perspective of a similar part, showing the back instead of the front.

The drawings show the parts on a larger scale than they are usually made.

The screen is made up of an ordinary framework, of which pieces 1 and 2 are shown in Fig. 2, and across the opening of the framework are placed bars, preferably of wood, because of the lightness and stiffness of that material. These bars are grooved on that side which lies toward the hopper and which will be called the front of the riddle with a nearly or substantially semicircular groove. The strip is also provided with cross-slots or cross-gains across the groove, in which are inserted small plates 3 of metal. That face of the metal plates which engages in the gains is semicircular, provided with a tang 4, that passes through a hole in the strip and is headed over or bent over to hold the plate securely in place. The front edge of the plate is provided with a notch 6, and the edge under the notch or from the lower part of the notch to the lower part of the plate is nearly though not quite parallel with the vertical rear edge of the strip, inclining inwardly slightly and with the upper point nearer to the vertical edge of the strip than is the lower point. The lower point of the plate is positioned at the front edge of the groove. The edge of the plate which is above the notch is also inclined, and the upper point is nearer to the rear face than the point which is next to the notch. A plate 7 rests in the notch and extending forward and inclined slightly upward engages in a saw-kerf 9 in the strip in front. There are a number of plates of the kind described spaced along the strip with distance between them sufficient to allow the easy passage of a kernel of wheat or the easy passage of a kernel of oats that drops into the little channel endwise; but the curved face of the wood, which forms the back of the chamber between two adjacent plates, taken in connection with the edge of the plate 7 which rests in the notch, forms a curved passage which will prevent the long oat-kernel, especially the oat-kernel with its inclosing eulm, from traveling around and escaping from the chamber on the under side thereof. In this riddle the oat-kernel is stopped in an early vertical posi'tion,from which it is removed by the shaking motion of the riddle, which throws it upward and causes the oat-kernel gradually to travel along the upper surface of the riddle and over the rear edge thereof. The rounder and shorter wheat-kernel travels through the curved passage around the edge of the plate 7 and finally escapes through the passage 10 on the under side of the riddle. The result is effected by the peculiar shape of the passage, which because of its curvature allows the short round wheat-kernel to travel through it, but causes the longer oat-kernel to stop while the oat-kernel itself is in a nearly vertical position, from which it maybe removed easily by the jolting or jarring or shaking of the riddle. To this end it is preferable to make the upper opening into the curved passage with the rear edge of the plate 7 slightly though not greatly to the front of a vertical line dropped from the front edge 13 of the bar A, so that the oat-berry may take a position with its axis very nearly in the line of ranged along the bar and spacing the grooveinto chambers and a plate longitudinal of said bar projecting into said chambers, substantially as described.

2. In a grain-riddle, in combination with a plurality of cross-bars with grooved faces,

plates inserted therein at an angle to the axis thereof and spacing said grooves into chambers, and plates longitudinal of said bars projecting from a plain face of one bar into one of said chambers adjacent to the free edge of said first-mentioned plates, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I sign th1s speclfication in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM H. EMERSON.

Witnesses:

MAY E. KoTT, WVILLIAM M. SWAN. 

